Sl. Usdan et al., Crack cocaine, alcohol, and other drug use patterns among homeless personswith other mental disorders, AM J DRUG A, 27(1), 2001, pp. 107-120
This study examined the co-occurrence of cocaine, alcohol, marijuana, and o
ther drug use among treatment seeking homeless persons to determine whether
alcohol use predicted cocaine use differently than marijuana and other dru
gs predicted cocaine use. Participants were 141 homeless persons with subst
ance use and other nonpsychotic mental disorders seeking drug treatment at
a metropolitan health care agency for homeless persons. They were 72.3% mal
e, 27.7% female, 82.7% African American, 17.3% Caucasian, with an average a
ge of 37.7 (SD 7.1) years and had 13.1 (SD 2.4) average years of education.
Results supported the assertion that cocaine use was strongly associated w
ith extent of alcohol use and that the association between cocaine and alco
hol was stronger than the association between cocaine and other drug use, i
ncluding marijuana. Participants with cocaine plus alcohol disorders were r
etained longer in treatment than disorders of cocaine only with no differen
ces in abstinence outcome. The findings should drive further research into
the use of alcohol as a trigger or predictor of cocaine use, the deleteriou
s effects of the combined use of cocaine and alcohol, and specialized treat
ments for polysubstance users.